The Rivalry

16th June, 2019. 7th World cup face-off between old foes, India and Pakistan at Old Trafford, Manchester. India had emerged victorious on all previous six occasions. Excitement was high all around both nations, and rightly so. It was probably the biggest rivalry in cricket, two teams playing each other in the marquee event. 

Being an ardent cricketophile, I have been waiting for this day since the beginning of the year. Pakistan, despite beating the highly rated home side England, were deemed as underdogs as a result of playing below par cricket against Australia and Windies. India, on the other hand, were overwhelming favourites, having a much experienced side and being on a roll after 2 wins from previous 2 matches. The entire stadium was a sea of blue, sprinkled with slight patches of green. 

Chants of “India, India…” echoed around the stadium constantly. My building, which is right next to a main road, was empty. Not a single vehicle was seen on the streets. Such was the hype of this game. The game started at 3pm, with India batting first. What followed the next 9 hours was no surprise for anyone. Unlike the previous World Cup encounters of India and Pakistan, this one turned out to be a damp squib with India steamrolling Pakistan and winning by a sizeable margin of 89 runs. This margin would definitely have been even more, had rain not intervened. All the Indian fans were chuffed to bits but there was that part inside me which made me question: “Did the cricket match do justice to all the hype and electric atmosphere it had created?” Sadly the answer was no. It was such a meek surrender by Pakistan team at the end that it dampened the spirit of exhilaration one finds at victory.

Considering in the previous 5 ODIs between India and Pakistan, India have emerged winners on 4 occasions, losing just once in the Champions Trophy final, the outcome was not in doubt. The gulf of cricketing experience between the two teams has become so wide that the current Pakistan team is nowhere near teams like England and New Zealand and even Bangladesh for that matter. There’s no consistent player, no one they can look up to; even their coach was seen scratching his head for answers. The three of Pakistan’s most experienced players looked completely out of sorts. Calling this one loss against India on Sunday “not their day” would be pretty unfair taking into consideration that the improvement in their performances has been almost nil. Sloppy fielding, simple run out chances being missed, all played a part in their mammoth defeat. The only positive for Pakistan to take away from the match was that they did not drop a single catch. For a neutral cricket fan, this was a completely disappointing one sided contest, not worthy of the hype at all. I still recall the 2003 WC encounter of Ind vs Pak in Centurion which ended with India chasing down a big target of 273 . That match was a complete roller coaster. India got off to a quick start, then quickly lost 2 wickets back to back, then resurrected the innings and won by 6 wickets in hand. That match is the best Indo-Pak WC match in my opinion because all the fans had their hearts in their throats, watching with anticipation and excitement as to what will happen in the next delivery, with the pendulum of destiny quickly changing sides from India to Pakistan and then back to India in the end. Unfortunately, though, I don’t see a repeat of “Centurion 2003” anytime in the near future purely because of the inexperience and poor performances rampant in the current Pakistan side. Pakistan needs to improve and they need to improve fast, if they are still to be reckoned a strong force in international cricket. Meanwhile it is entirely pointless creating all this hype. The rivalry is just feeding off its golden past; at the moment, it’s just one team’s show more often than not.